A wide range of sports equipment is designed and used to protect the human body from injury. Equipment pieces are relatively large, bulky, oddly shaped, fitted with straps, and difficult to wash and dry. In soccer, a player wears shin guards and ankle guards to protect the lower leg. In hockey, a player wears knee pads, a chest protector, elbow pads, gloves, a helmet and hockey pants. In football, a player wears shoulder pads, leg and hip pads, a helmet, a neck roll, elbow pads and gloves. Bicyclists and roller blade skaters use helmets. Many sports require general or specialized footwear, such as cleats, sneakers, spikes, skates, roller blades and the like. Workers can wear similar equipment.
Protective equipment can be worn with direct contact against a skin or a head surface. Whether the equipment directly contacts the human body or is separated by clothing or a piece of cloth, sweat soaks into materials, such as pads, elastic material, straps, foam, and other materials. If not properly dried or cleaned, the sweat-soaked equipment becomes a site for growth of bacteria, mold, mildew, fungus, and other microorganisms that can spread disease, cause odor and/or damage or discolor the equipment. The equipment and the bag, bin or other storage container can become malodorous. Odors from the equipment can emanate from or through the container and make unpleasant the corresponding room, such as a vehicle compartment. Merely blowing air across the equipment to dry the equipment can more broadly release odors from the evaporated sweat and moisture into the room, house or other compartment. It is desirable to have an apparatus and/or method for drying, deodorizing, and/or sanitizing equipment and/or its surrounding air or atmosphere, quickly and conveniently.
Known products in the marketplace have addressed this need. Dhaemers, U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,806 describes a portable sport equipment bag having an air distributor connected with a hose to a blower and an ozone generator operable to move pressurized air and ozone into the air distributor. The air distributor moves the air and ozone into the bag to dry the sports equipment contained within the bag, to destroy bacteria, molds and fungus in the bag. The ozone directly contacts the sports equipment, which can be a serious problem because ozone can destroy many equipment materials, such as when the ozone exists in air at concentrations that are high enough to kill undesirable microorganisms. When well mixed with contaminated air, ozone can more effectively and efficiently oxidize contaminants. Also, ozone is a lung irritant and can leak out of the equipment bag and dangerously be inhaled, such as when the user opens the sports equipment bag. These safety issues can be serious enough to warrant alternative approaches.
Dhaemers, U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,892 describes a dryer in the form of an armoire with an internal drying chamber for housing articles that are subjected to heated circulating air, to remove moisture from the articles. Ultraviolet lamps within the drying chamber destroy contaminants in the air and on the air conditioning coils, in the drying chamber. A similar configuration is taught by Liang, U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,077, which is limited because contaminated materials must be in a direct line of sight of a UV light source, in order to be sanitized. The clothes alone can restrict exposure between the material and the UV light. Air that circulates in the armoire cannot be deodorized.
There is a need for a convenient, efficient, cost effective and efficient method and apparatus for drying, deodorizing and/or sanitizing air and equipment, particularly without damaging the equipment.
Many other types of products can benefit from being dried, sanitized and deodorized, such as toys used at home or in commercial or institutional settings, including health care facilities, day care centers and/or schools. The materials used in toys and stuffed animals make it difficult to clean them quickly and conveniently. Many toys need to be individually wiped with disinfectant to clean their surfaces. Disinfectants and wipes can be used to clean toys. These cleaning procedures are time consuming and burdensome.
There is a need for a method and apparatus for drying, deodorizing, and/or sanitizing a variety of products, quickly, safely and/or effectively, with minimal physical or chemical impact to the products.
Ethylene gas (C2H4) accumulates during the transport and storage of fresh fruits and vegetables and thus causes a problem for commercial agriculture and consumers. Small amounts of ethylene, sometimes less than 1 ppm, can induce fruit ripening, and can produce undesirable flavors such as bitterness, colors, such as yellowing or browning, and textures, such as softening, and thus can increase susceptibility to disease. Certain fruits and vegetables naturally generate ethylene during a ripening cycle. Other fruits and vegetables are highly sensitive to the presence of ethylene, but may or may not actually produce ethylene. The table in FIG. 9 lists some fruits and vegetables and known ethylene production rates and sensitivities.
The amount of ethylene that produces undesirable amounts or characteristics varies with different fruits and vegetables, but ethylene concentrations in the range of 0.1-10 ppm can produce a significant effect. There is a need for a system that removes ethylene from the air within a fruit or vegetable storage container while not damaging the fruits or vegetables.
In addition, mold and fungus and other microbes on the surfaces of food products, such as fresh produce can lead to damage of or total loss of the infected fruits or vegetables. The mold and fungus can release spores as part of their life cycle that circulate through the air and subsequently infect other fruit or vegetable items that are in contact with the same atmosphere. There is a need for a system that can kill the microbes on the surface of the produce and/or in the air circulating around the produce.
Ozone is known to be able to kill mold and fungus and other microbes on surfaces and in the atmosphere when provided in sufficient dosage, such as in time and concentration. UV light is known to kill microbes at defined exposures, such as at frequency, power level and time.
Because there is significant industry value in maintaining fresh fruits and vegetables during transportation and storage, some technologies have been researched, developed and commercialized to control ethylene. These conventional methods and their limitations are shown in the table of FIG. 10.
Residential, commercial and industrial spaces can have atmospheres that are contaminated with odors, gases, volatile organic compounds, microbes and/or allergens that cause discomfort or health hazards to people occupying those spaces. Conventional air cleaning technologies filter the air with materials that trap or otherwise adsorb or absorb gases, odors, microbes and/or allergens. These trapped or otherwise held contaminants are always present in the filters and can be re-emitted into the atmosphere. One preferred air cleaning approach would be to convert the odors, gases and/or volatile organic compounds into harmless compounds that are not noticed by or cause harm to occupants in the room. It is also preferable for an air purifier to inactivate microbes and/or alter allergens in a way that renders them harmless rather than to capture the particles. That way, there is less need to replace filters that are filled with particulates and other contaminants that can be re-emitted into the atmosphere.
There is a need for an alternative approach to ethylene and microbial control that would be less expensive, consume less power, and require less space. There is a need for an alternative approach to air cleaning that would convert or inactivate rather than capture contaminants in the atmosphere. There is also a need for an alternative approach to air cleaning that incorporates a self-clean function to deodorize and sanitize the particulate filters that capture material.